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Buffalo Bluer Than Blue Line

January 20, 2017, 5:35 PM ET [5 Comments]
GARTH'S CORNER
NHL news by Garth • RSSArchiveCONTACT
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Just as the Buffalo Sabres are returning players from the injury list, another key contributor is injured. The Sabres have already missed 220 man games to injury this season. They may be adding a new to the list.


Left defenseman Jake McCabe, he of the Patrik Laine collision heard round the world, suffered a shoulder injury on the first shift of the game after he was shoved from behind into the boards by Detroit's Gustav Nyquist Friday night.

McCabe skated just three shifts for 56 second seconds of ice time. He left the game and went directly to the room after the injury occurred. He re-emerged and skated one shift and then retreated back to the Buffalo training room.

McCabe's injury is to the same shoulder that he had injured earlier in his career.


At the beginning of the second period, Sabres PR announced that McCabe would not play again tonight due to his shoulder injury. The Sabres were forced to finish the game with five defensemen.

The Buffalo end of the barn looked like a fire drill at times because of the mix and match D pairs that Terry Murray was forced to play with. However, the Sabres gutted out a gritty 3-2 OT win despite the adversity.

Losing McCabe is a hueg blow to the already compromised Buffalo blue line. McCabe plays alongside Rasmus Ristolainen on Buffalo's top D pair. McCabe, 23, has one goal and nine assists in 44 games this season. He is averaging 21:27 TOI, which is second behind Ristolainen on the Sabres. He has 64 blocked shots and 50 hits.


The 2016-17 Buffalo Sabres have been decimated by serious injuries to Jack Eichel, Zach Bogosian, Ryan O’Reilly, Evander Kane, Tyler Ennis, Dmitry Kulikov, and Josh Gorges.

Justin Falk now becomes the only healthy lefty in the Buffalo organization. The cupboards are bare in Rochester.


The Sabres charter to Montreal immediately following the game. My guess is that McCabe will not be making the trip to Montreal which means that Tim Murray will have to make a call up from Rochester. Casey Nelson or Erik Bergdoerfer likely would get the call to Buffalo to play in Montreal. However, both youngsters are right shot D-men. The Sabres don't have a lefty in Rochester right now because Justin Falk is already filling in for the injured Josh Gorges. Taylor Fedun is filling in for the injured Kulikov.

Tim Murray has some thinking to do.

Does he make another emergency recall of Brendan Guhle? The promising left D prospect acquitted himself very well by playing an inspired three game set for the Sabres in December?

How would Guhle get to Montreal from Western Canada? Pegula's private jet?


Nyquist was give a two minute minor for his carelessness. I'm thinking the play will be reviewed by the NHL Department of Player Safety.

I have been told by a reliable source that injured left defenseman Dmitry Kulikov will begin battle drill testing on Saturday morning in Buffalo. Kulikov (lower back) was placed on injured reserve on December 29 and has missed the past 10 games. All told, Kulikov has missed 25 of Buffalo's 45 games this season with the back/lower body injury that he suffered in a preseason game against Toronto back in September.


It may be wishful thinking on my part to suggest that McCabe wil be returning from his injury in a game or two. We will see what the team doctors and Tim Murray have to say about McCabe's injury and prognosis.

Murray now has three options to replace McCabe:

1. Call up a kid from Rochester.
2. Make a trade for Shea Theodore, Brandon Montour or another young, top four puck mover
3. Activate Kulikov when/if he passes his battle tests in the near future.


Due to the McCabe injury early in Friday night's game, Rasmus Ristolainen was forced to skate a team-high 35:24 TOI. Ristolainen played 4:35 of the five minute OT period. Great for Ristolainen that he is a freak of nature and is able to achieve career highs in time on ice seemingly every night. Ristolainen has told me with a straight face several times this season that he can skate the entire sixty minutes in clock time in a game, if needed.I believe the Big Finn. His fitness levels are off the charts.


Number 55 is not the concern.

Which lefty can play north of 30 minutes a night on Risto's left side while McCabe is injured?


All due respect to Justin Falk, but he should nit be playing more than 15 minutes TOI per game. nice guy. Steady ham and egger. Not a top four D. Zach Bogosian, a righty, played 29:51 in TOI on the left side versus Detroit. Cody Franson, a true number 6 righty, skated 22:00 TOI. Falk ate 18 minutes TOI and Tayylor Fedun (righty) skated 16 minutes TOI.


If you read me on a regular basis, you know that I have been persistent about reporting that Buffalo's D corps needs a massive upgrade in talent. Tim Murray has been searching for a left shot, top four D since the Cam Fowler deal died last June. There have been available young LD in teh NHL this season. What is Murray waiting for? With Kulikov, Gorges and now McCabe injured, he is going to have to pay a steeper price in a trade for a left defenseman because he is dealing from a position of weakness.


Murray needs to trade atop six forward for a top four D.

He needs to do it yesterday or else the 2016-17 will be remembered as a massive failure in the minds of the loyal Sabres fan base who are sick and tired of the excuses, the tanking and the snail's pace of this rebuild.

Even if McCabe's injury is superficial and only requires him to sit out a game or three, so be it. Murray still has to go outside of the organization for a solution to his glaring left D depth crisis. I'm not talking about a waiver claim or a minor league trade. I'm talking about a real NHL hockey trade.

The Buffalo blue line and it's lack of left side superiority has undermined the success of this team's improved goaltending all season long. You can't blame Dan Bylsma for that. Bylsma is playing the hand he was dealt and has inspired, gotten the most out of AHLers Justin Falk and Taylor Fedun in the wake of the serious injurious to Kulikov and Gorges. Problem being, there are no more quality Amerks defensemen to call up to fill in for McCabe.


It's go time, Tim. TRade Evander Kane for a top four D-man. NOW. Justin Bailey has scored six goals in six games since he was returned to AHL Rochester. Bailey gives the Sabres the same elements that Kane does, but at a fraction of the price. Bailey skates like the wind, is physical, on the walls, is fearless and can score goals in bunches. Oh, and Bailey is a better teammate than Kane, so I'm told.

Stop talking about it and do something before the playoff dreams swirl down the drain.





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The Sabres host the Detroit Red Wings tonight.

Evander Kane has scored each of his 12 goals this season in his last 21 games. Kane is one of the hottest scorers in the NHL today. Kane also has five assists.

Kane currently leads the Sabres with 11 even-strength goals.

In the period since scoring his first goal of the season on December 3 against the Boston Bruins:


* Kane has not gone three consecutive games without scoring a goal.

* Kane is tied for sixth among all NHL skaters in goals (12).

* Kane is tied for the NHL lead in even-strength goals (11).

* Kane ranks 10th in the NHL in goals per 60 (1.84).



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Scouts from 14 different NHL teams will be watching tonight's Sabres-Wings game.


Presumably, Ducks GM Bob Murray is once again interested in Evander Kane. Murray has been looking to add a scoring top six forward for months. His urgency ratcheted up a few notches when Jakob Silverberg was injured on Thursday night in a collision with Colorado D-man Nikita Zadaorov. Silfverberg fell to the ice and hit his head on the ice. Slifverberg left the game to be evaluated and never returned to action. As a precautionary measure, the Ducks are leaving Silverberg home from their two game road trip to Minnesota and Winnipeg. Silfverberg has 13 goals and 29 points for the Ducks this season. At +13 rating, Silfverberg is tied with Ryan Kesler for Ducks team lead in +/-.

On Friday afternoon, the Ducks recalled forward Corey Tropp to fill in for Silfverberg.

The Ducks (26-13-9) enter Friday night's action with a three point lead over San Jose in the Pacific Division standings.

The Ducks have also recalled defenseman Shea Theodore from AHL San Diego.

The Sabres sent their west coast scout to Anaheim to watch Ducks-Avs Thursday night. The Ducks have their scout here in Buffalo tonight.

Evander Kane for Shea Theodore trade buzz intensifies.

The Sabres and Ducks can address their primary needs with such a trade.



Top six forward for top four D-man is the going rate as established by Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson trade last summer.

The Ducks may be willing to replace Theodore (left shot) with two-time AHL All Star Brandon Montour (right shot) in a deal for Evander Kane.


Both @sheatheodore and Corey Tropp were recalled today from the @sdgullsahl!

A photo posted by Anaheim Ducks (@anaheimducks) on




There are several other NHL teams namely LA, San Jose, Philadelphia, Calgary and the NY Rangers who are all looking to add a 20-goal scoring veteran forward at the NHL trade deadline.

The GM that offers Buffalo the right top four D-man will get the deal done.


The Minnesota Wild have sent their assistant general manager to Buffalo tonight as well.



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NHL GMs are actively calling Anaheim Ducks GM Bob Murray to inquire about trading for his blue chip, can't-miss defensemen prospects Brandon Mountour, Shea Theodore, and Jacob Larsson.

"The system doesn't allow you to hoard this kind of talent forever", LeBrun said on the Thursday night edition of "Insider Trading".

There are several NHL teams who continue their desperate quest to trade for a top four defenseman. Most, if not all defensemen trade calls usually get directed to Bob Murray in SoCal.

Murray ain't budging. It's with peace and love that he continue to tell his eager, motivated NHL GM counterparts to keep dreaming if they want to try and pry one of his NHL D studs away from the Ducks.


I've been telling you since October that Hampus Lindolm, Sami Vatanen and Josh Manson are off limits. Ditto Kevin Bieksa.

In mid-October, Bob Murray extricated Cam Fowler from the NHL trade market. There were a couple of teams, namely Buffalo and Detroit, who thought they were close to completing a trade for Fowler last summer when Bob Murray was in salary cap trouble after signing then restricted free agents Hampus Lindholm and Rickard Rakell to new contracts. Sami Vatanen's new contract extension also impacts the 2016-17 salary cap.

It was a mortal lock in the first few weeks of the regular season that the Ducks would be forced to trade a big contract of two (see Fowler's $4M AAV) in order for Murray to create the slush necessary to re-sign his coveted restricted free agents Ricky Rakell, Sami Vatanen, and Hampus Lindholm. There was no way possible that Fowler could remain a Duck and Murray have enough salary cap space to finalize new long term contracts with Rakell, Vatanen, and Lindholm had there not been some special circumstances. Just when it seemed all hopes were dashed and it appeared that Bob Murray would have to trade away his best defenseman for prospects and picks (see Buffalo 8th overall) the hockey gods smiled upon Fowler and the Ducks when veterans Simon Despres and Nate Thompson were forced into long term injury status.

Bob Murray literally has been playing with house money all season long due to the LTIR savings of Despres and Thompson. Soem would call it manna from heaven. Others dumb luck. Despres has an LTIR salary figure of $3,376,667 and Thompson has a $1.6 million LTIR relief figure. Last I checked, neither Despres nor Thompson were close to returning to game action.

So, the Goodship Fowler ship set sail in October when Murray placed defenseman Despres and Thomspson on long term injured reserve. Murray has since been able to keep his NHL rioster intact and achieve salary cap compliance due to the LTIR relief from the contracts of Despres and forward Nate Thompson. Were it not for these two serious injurious, Fowler most likely would be a Buffalo Sabres star right now.

That's all ancient history now that the attention has shifted to AHL San Diego.

The Ducks are in such salary cap hell that Theodore has been called up and demoted back to AH: San Diego eight different times this season. It's penny pinching at it's bean counting finest. The math works for the chief financial officer of the Ducks and Bob Murray but it seemingly has taken a toll on Theodore. The kid is living out of the back of his luxury SUV. Hell, the state of Califirnia is going to rename the interstate between Anaheim and San Diego the "Shea Theodore Freeway".

San Diego is now the focal point of NHL teams looking to trade for a soon-to-be-star NHL defenseman. The Ducks have done a masterful job of feathering their organizational nest with three of the the best young defensemen prospects in North America in Montour, Theodore and Larsson.

The time has come to use one or two of his awesome young D assets to fund a trade for a spanking new scoring power forward for the Ducks.

Bob Murray may have no other choice than to trade Montour, Theodore or Larsson right now. It's the only way the Ducks will take possession of the top six scorer it so desperately covets.

One such power forward is Buffalo's Evander Kane, whom the Ducks have scouted several different times this season. Kane plays the heavy game with high tempo and serious truculence. He will be a 20 goal scorer again this season. Kane has scored 12 goals and 5 assists in his last 20 games. He's one of the hottest shooters in the NHL today. The Ducks want him. So do the Kings, Flyers, Canucks, and Sharks.

Like they had when they were scouting Jamie McGinn for a trade, the Ducks make routine visits to Buffalo this season. Their assistant general manager and director of player personnel have been visible to my eyes at many Sabres home games this season. Buffalo's west coast scout is a frequent flyer to Anaheim this season. Why? The Sabres s and Ducks will only play two games this season. The Sabres left coast scout was in attendance at Avalanche @ Ducks on Thursday night.


Bob Murray wants Evander Kane. Tim Murray wants Shea Theodore and Adam Larsson.


So, until such time that Despres or Thompson, or both are cleared for contact and are ready to play in games for the Ducks, Bob Murray is snug as a bug in a rug which means that he doesn't have to trade Fowler, nor any other player.

For now, that is.


The trade discussion continue to happen between Bob Murray and other NHL GMs like Tim Murray. These days, Fowler's name has been replaced in the discussions by those of Ducks blue chip D prospects Shea Theodore and Brandon Montour.


Bob Murray is still looking to add a two-way power center/forward.


The Ducks have been scouting Buffalo routinely for the past three months.

Evander Kane is still very appealing to Bob Murray. Trading for Kane would require Tim Murray to absorb a portion (50%) of the remainder of his $5.25M AAV for this season, which today is approximately $2.625 million. Kane has this and next year remaining on his Buffalo contract.


Tim Murray and Dan Bylsma are long overdue on adding an impact player to the NBuffalo blue line. Shea Theodore (26th overall 2013, 6'2" and 195 lb., Left D) or Brandon Montour (55th overall 2014, 6'0" and 195 lb., Right D) would answer that immediate need.

An then some.

Both man are big, strong, smart, skilled defenders who play the 200 foot game. Both join join the rush as the fourth man and have the speed to back track and pick up opposing forwards on the back check. Don't sleep on Jacob Larsson (6'2" and 190 lb., Left D), the 19 year old lefty who was the 27th overall pick in 2015. Larsson recently was loaned to Team Sweden's World Juniors team where he played with Buffalo prospects Alex Nylander and Rasmus Asplund.

The Ducks have a surplus of young defenseman. They cannot keep forcing the kids to stay in AHL San Diego and bide their time until the next injury hits the Ducks D corps. Theodore and Montour are NHL ready. They are plug and play defensemen who can eat 20+ minutes TOI in the NHL without batting an eye.

Theodore, 21, has scored one goal and seven assists with 18 PIMs in 23 games with the Ducks this season. The 6'1", 195 lb. defenseman has set NHL single-season career highs in several categories during the 2016-17 season, including assists, appearances and PIM. Selected by Anaheim in the first round (26th overall) of the 2013 NHL Draft, Theodore has earned 4 goals and 11 assists with 20 PIM in 42 career NHL games. In 11 games with the Gulls this season, Theodore recorded 1 goals and 8 assists with a +5 rating.

Earlier this month, the American Hockey League named defenseman Brandon Montour to the 2017 AHL All-Star Classic. Montour will make his second career All-Star appearance following his All-Star debut last season in Syracuse, N.Y.

Montour, 22, has collected 11 goals and 15 assists points with 30 PIMs in 28 appearances with San Diego this season. The Brantford, Ontario native was recalled by the Anaheim Ducks on December 28 and made his NHL debut on December 29 at Calgary. Montour has made three appearances with Anaheim this season, going scoreless with a +1 rating.


Selected by Anaheim in the second round (55th overall) of the 2014 NHL Draft, Montour has earned 20Gs, 68As and a +10 rating in 107 career AHL games with San Diego (2015 to present) and Norfolk (2014-15).


Soon, Theodore or Montour will be leaving the Anaheim nest.




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Scouts in the house from San Jose, Colorado, Boston, Montreal, Minnesota, Winnipeg, New Jersey, Florida, Ottawa, NY Rangers, Toronto, Chicago.

The St. Louis Blues have sent their director of player personnel to watch Sabres-Wings. The Blues have been here several times in the past couple of months.

I bet Blues GM Doug Armstrong is regretting trading goalie Anders Nilsson to Buffalo last summer.

Jake Allen was so bad on Thursday night against the Washington Capitals that he was pulled TWICE from the same game. Allen is not on the Blues' road trip this weekend. They left him home to work things out and to get his head straight.



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Here are some factoids for you to wash down with your double IPA:

* Matt Moulson (600th game) and Justin Falk (200th game) will each reach a career milestone tonight.


* A win tonight would give the Sabres wins in four straight home games since the team won six in a row at home from Nov. 28 to Dec. 15, 2014.

* The Sabres have scored the first goal in each of their last five games. With the first goal tonight, they will have done so in six straight for the first time since they did so from Jan. 10 to Jan.uary20, 2016.

* Four of William Carrier’s six points this season have come in the last six games, including three of his four goals.

* Rasmus Ristolainen has seven assists in his last seven games against the Red Wings.
Tyler Ennis has four points (2+2) in four games against Detroit since the beginning of the 2014-15 season.

* Brian Gionta has at least a point (1+3) in each of his last three games against the Red Wings.

* Jack Eichel has four points (3+1) in his last four games against Detroit.


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Buffalo beat Detroit on December 27 in the Motor City. The Sabres are looking for wins in consecutive matchups with the Red Wings for the first time since March 6, 1994 and November 1, 1995.

A win would also give the Sabres two wins in a season against the Red Wings for the first time since they won both matchups in the 1989-90 season.

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Ryan O’Reilly has eight points (2+6) in his last eight home games.

Sam Reinhart enters tonight’s game with points in five straight home games (1+6), the longest home point streak of his career.

Jack Eichel has nine points (6+3) in 11 home games this season, including three two-goal outings.

Anders Nilsson is 5-1-1 at home this season, with a .941 save percentage and a 1.84 goals-against average in those games.



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